LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 



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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



THE 



STEAM ENGINE 



Fulfilling Prophecy 



BEING A 

REVIEW OF CERTAIN MYSTERIOUS PASSAGES OF 
SCRIPTURE CONTAINED IN THE BIBLE, 
BOTH IN THE OLD TESTAMENT 
AND IN THE NEW, 

AND. THEN OFFERING 



TEN PROPOSITIONS TO PROVE THAT IT WAS THE STEAM ENGINE, 

AS WE NOW HAVE IT, THAT THE INSPIRED WRITERS 

SAW IN THEIR PROPHETIC VISIONS. 



By 
MARK FENNELL, ^0*1 V 

Stationary Engineer at Clevelan^>Q, W/lSHW<*t 



y* 



CLEVELAND, OHIO 

THE WILLIAMS PUBLISHING COMPANY 
1891 






Copyright, 1890. 
By MARK FENNELS. 

All Rights Reserved. 



PREFACE. 



One of the writers of the inspired Book^avs, 
4i Lo, this only have I found, that God hath 
made man upright ; and they have sought out 
many inventions . ' ' Most of the inventions that 
man sought out for ages and generations were 
weapons of war : but man has now turned his 
attention to another class of inventions. The 
steam-engine is most decidedly an engine of 
peace, and peace and tranquility will be the re- 
sult of its invention. 

In giving this small volume to our readers, we 
hope its reasoning may be comprehended and be 
£i source qi profit to all. 



THE STEAM ENGINE FULFILLING 
PROPHECY. 

The work that our great and beneficent Crea- 
tor enjoined upon man, in the day when God 
made man in His own image and after His own 
likeness, was that he should be fruitful and mul- 
tiply and replenish the earth, and subdue it. And 
notwithstanding his fall in and expulsion from 
the garden of Eden, man has gone on to obey 
the Divine injunction, and is succeeding nobly. 

Man has succeeded in subduing the earth so 
far already that he can tell its shape and its size 
and its weight and its motions, almost to per- 
fection. Whenever God has had any special 
work for any man to do, whether that work has 
been prophetical, apostolical, or mechanical, God 
has always prepared a man for the work that 
He has placed before him. 

Hence, when God was about to destroy the 
world by a flood of waters, He said unto Noah, 



6 THE STEAM ENGINE 

"The end of all flesh is come before me ; for the 
earth is filled with violence through them ; and 
behold, I will destroy them with the earths 
Make thee an ark of gopher wood ; rooms shalt 
thou make in the ark, and shalt pitch it w T ithin 
and without with pitch. And this is the fashion 
which thou shalt make it of : The length of the 
ark shall be three hundred cubits, and the breadth 
of it fifty cubits, and the height of it thirty cu- 
bits. A window shalt thou make to the ark, 
and in a cubit shalt thou finish it above; and the 
door of the ark shalt thou set in the side thereof; 
with lower, second and third stories shalt thou 
make it." And with these instructions, Noah 
prepared an ark to the saving of his house ; by 
the which he condemned the world and became 
heir of the righteousness w r hich is by faith. 

When God was about to institute His worship 
among the children of Israel duringtheir journey 
in the wilderness from Egypt to Canaan, we 
learn from the book of Exodus, the twenty-sixth 
chapter, that the Lord said unto Moses, "More- 
over, thou shalt make the tabernacle with ten 
curtains of fine twined linen, and blue, and pur- 



FULFILLING PROPHECY. 7 

pie, and scarlet; with cherubim of cunning work 
shalt thou make them. The length of one cur- 
tain shall be eight and twenty cubits, and the 
breadth of one curtain four cubits ; and every 
one of the curtains shall have one measure. The 
five curtains shall be coupled together one to 
another; and other five curtains shall be coupled 
one to another. And thou shalt make loops of 
*blue upon the edge of the one curtain from the 
selvedge in the coupling; and likewise shalt thou 
make in the uttermost edge of another curtain, 
in the coupling of the second. Fifty loops shalt 
thou make in the one curtain, and fifty loops 
shalt thou make in the edge of the curtain that 
is in the coupling of the second ; that the loops 
may take hold one of another. And thou shalt 
make fifty taches of gold, and couple the cur- 
tains together with the taches ; and it shall be 
one tabernacle. And thou shalt make boards 
for the tabernacle of shittim wood standing up. 
Ten cubits shall be the length of a board, and a 
cubit and a half shall be the breadth of one 
board. And thou shalt rear up the tabernacle 



8 THE STEAM ENGINE 

according to the fashion thereof which was 
shewed thee in the mount." 

And after giving these and other instructions 
about the tabernacle and its service that need 
not be mentioned here, from the thirty-first 
chapter of Exodus we learn that: "The Lord 
spake unto Moses, saying, See, I have called by 
name Bezaleel the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of 
the tribe of Judah ; and I have filled him with 
the spirit of God, in wisdom and in understand- 
ing, and in knowledge, and in all manner of 
workmanship, to devise cunning works, to work 
in gold, and in silver, and in brass, and in cut; 
ting of stones to set them, and in carving of 
timber, to work in all manner of workman- 
ship. And I, behold, I have given with him 
Aholiab, the son of Ahisamack of the tribe of 
Dan : and in the hearts of all that are wise- 
hearted have I put wisdom, that they may make 
all that I have commanded thee." 

Now the magnificent temple that was after- 
wards built by Solomon was patterned after the 
tabernacle. In the second chapter of the second 
book of Chronicles we are told that Solomon sent 



FULFILLING PROPHECY. 9 

toHuramtheKingof Tyre, and said, "Sendmea 
man cunning to work in gold, and in silver, and 
in brass, and in iron, and in purple, and crimson, 
and blue, and that can skfll to grave with the 
cunning men that are with me in Judah and 
Jerusalem." "And Huram the King of Tyre 
answered in writing, which he sent to Solomon, 
and said, Now I have sent thee a cunning man, 
endued with understanding, the son of a woman 
of the daughters of Dan, and his father was a 
man of Tyre, skilful to work in gold, and in 
silver, in brass, in iron, in stone and in timber, 
in purple, in blue, and in fine linen, and in crim- 
son ; also to grave any manner of graving, and 
to find out every device which shall be put to 
him, with thy cunning men, and with the cun- 
ning men of my lord David thy father.' ' 

Now every student of the Bible knows that 
these Old Testament works are but symbols 
and types of the glory that should follow the 
sufferings of Christ. 

When Noah and his family came forth out of 
the ark after the flood, the Bible tells us that 
God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto 



10 THE STEAM ENGINE 

them, "Be fruitful and multiply and replenish 
the earth/ ' 

" And Noah began to be a husbandman, and 
planted a vineyard : and he drank of the wine 
and was drunken ; and he was uncovered within 
his tent. And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw 
the nakedness of his father, and told his two- 
brethren without. And Shem and Japheth took 
a garment and laid it upon both their shoulders, 
and went backward and covered the nakedness 
of their father. And Noah awoke from his wine 
and knew what his younger son had done unto 
him. And he said, Cursed be Canaan; a serv- 
ant of servants shall he be unto his brethren. 
And he said, Blessed be the Lord God of Shem ; 
and Canaan shall be his servant. God shall en- 
large Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents of 
Shem ; and Canaan shall be his servant." 

These predictions have been fulfilled before our 
own eyes. God has enlarged Japheth, and he is 
dwelling in the tents of Shem, and Canaan has 
been his servant. But the mighty, independent, 
onward-marching Japhethite said, "I don't 
want Canaan to be my servant any longer. I 



FULFILLING PROPHECY. II 

don't want to be bothered with him. Canaan 
can go and work out his own salvation, and I 
will send missionaries and teachers to help him, 
and I will call on the forces of nature to do my 
hardest work." And the result is, that we have 
engines now in use, one of which can easily do 
the work of ten thousand men. 

Chambers' Encyclopaedia says of the first 
great pyramid of the Cheops, that it took a 
long time for its construction, one hundred 
thousand men being employed on it for thirty 
years or more, probably for about half a cen- 
tury. And some of our mechanical mathema- 
ticians have figured out that one of our engines 
does as much work as twenty-seven thousand 
of those men could do. 

The question we propose to consider in the 
following pages is, did the inspired writers, in 
their prophetic visions, get any glimpses of the 
steam-engine? because, if they did, it is addi- 
tional proof, if any were needed, that Christian- 
ity is founded on the Rock of Eternal Ages, and 
that Infidelity is built on the sinking sand. 

We are well aware that the subject we are 



12 THE STEAM ENGINE 

about to approach is worthy the attempt of a 
master-mind. St. Paul says, 1 Cor. 1 : 27-29, 
"But God hath chosen the foolish things of the 
world to confound the wise; and God hath 
chosen the weak things of the world to confound 
the things that are mighty ; and base things of 
the world, and things which are despised, 
hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, 
to bring to nought things that are : That no 
flesh should glory in His presence.' ' 

We think it is quite reasonable to suppose 
that an engine acting so important a part 
among us, upon whom the ends of the world are 
come, as the steam-engine, should be symbolized 
and foretold in the Bible. 

John Bunyan was a mechanic when he was a 
young man, and no mortal man but a mechanic 
could ever have written the ' Pilgrim's Progress ' 
as Bunyan wrote it. 

In the 'Pilgrim's Progress,' Christian came to 
the porter's lodge, or to the palace called Beau- 
tiful (or to the church, all meaning the same 
place), late in the evening. He asked the porter 
who was standing at the gate, whose house that 



FULFILLING PROPHECY. 13 

was, and if he could lodge there that night. 
And after giving a tolerable good account of 
himself, the porter took him into the house 
and introduced him to the family. They spent 
a pleasant evening together; and when they 
retired for the night, they put Christian in a 
beautiful chamber, the window of which was 
toward the sun-rising. Christian was up early 
in the morning, ready to resume his journey. 
But they told him that he should not go on his 
journey until they had shown him the rarities of 
that place; and Christian stayed several days 
at the palace called Beautiful. One day they 
took him into the study. They spent a whole 
day in the study, examining the records. And, 
after showing him our Lord's pedigree, how 
that He is the son of the Ancient of Days, and 
that He came of that eternal generation, 
then they showed him the records of some of the 
mighty acts which some of the Lord's most 
valiant servants had done— -how that thev had 
subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, 
obtained promises, stopped the mouths of 
lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the 



14 THE STEAM ENGINE 

edge of the sword, out of weakness were made 
strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight 
the armies of the aliens. And there were also 
other histories and records of many other 
famous things, all of which Christian had a 
view, as of things both ancient and modern, 
with prophecies and predictions as to their 
certain accomplishment, to the dread and 
amazement of enemies and to the comfort and 
solace of pilgrims. Now, every one that is com- 
petent to judge, will admit that the steam- 
engine is the most famous of all modern famous 
things. And John Bunyan says that a Chris- 
tian views modern famous things from the 
records in the study at the palace called Beauti- 
ful. 

Because all steam-engineers are not saints, 
any more than any other class of men are, that 
is no evidence whatever that the steam-engine 
has not come by divine appointment. The most 
sacred piece of mechanical work that we know 
anything about is what is known as the ark of the 
testimony, or the ark of the covenant. Readers 
of the Bible know that this ark was an oblong 



FULFILLING PROPHECY. 15 

chest ; two cubits and a half was the length of 
it ; a cubit and a half was the breadth of it, and 
a cubit and a half was the height of it. It was 
built of shittim wood and overlaid with pure 
gold within and without ; four rings of pure 
gold were put into the four corners of it, and 
staves of shittim wood overlaid with pure gold 
were put into the rings to carry the ark with . And 
a mercy seat of pure gold and two cherubim of 
gold of beaten work were put above upon the 
ark, and in the ark was put the testimony that 
God gave to the children of Israel. 

Now, who got the control of, or the handling 
of this sacred piece of mechanical art, designed 
and ordered made by God Himself? 

There were two priests, by the name of 
Hophni and Phinehas, who got control of it, 
and two greater villains than Hophni and Phin- 
ehas were we hardly read of. The most serious 
charge brought against them was that they lay 
with the women that assembled at the door of 
the tabernacle of the congregation . Hophni and 
Phinehas are the priests that we read of in the 
seventy-eighth Psalm/who fell by the sword and 



16 THE STEAM ENGINE 

their widows made no lamentation. It was 
through their villainy and the abomination 
that existed under their administration, that 
God forsook the tabernacle at Shiloh, the tent 
which He placed among men, and delivered His 
strength into captivity, and His glory into the 
enemy's hand ; that He gave His people over unto 
the sword, and was wroth with His inheritance. 

Now we are not to discuss some pre-Adamite 
theory, or something that nobody knows 
whether any such thing ever existed or whether it 
did not; but we are about to consider some- 
thing that our own eyes see, and our own hands 
handle, so that they who run may read and see 
for themselves how much truth there may be 
in the train of reasoning that we shall present. 
And may the spirit of God, which moved upon 
the face of the waters in the beginning, move on 
our disordered spirits, and give us light as we 
contemplate this sublime and glorious subject. 

On the book of Revelation, the Encyclopaedia 
Britannica says : "The book of the New Testa- 
ment, called Revelation of John, so long passed 
for the most obscure and difficult document of 



FULFILLING PROPHECY. 17 

early Christianity that scholars hesitated to 
apply to it the historical critical method of in- 
vestigation. Since this hesitation has been over- 
come, it appears that the matter of the book is 
neither obscure nor mysterious, although many 
special points still remain to be cleared up." 
Without being paradoxical, we may affirm that 
the Apocalypse is the most intelligible book in 
the New Testament, because its author had not 
the individuality and originality of Paul, and 
because, historically, we can trace and compre- 
hend its author's position much better than we 
can, for instance, the theology of Paul. But the 
Encyclopaedia says that all interpretations not 
strictly historical must be excluded. The ethico- 
spiritualistic, rationalistic and dogmatic expla- 
nations such as were first attempted by the 
Alexandrine theologians are fatal to the under- 
standing of the book, as are also the explana- 
tions drawn from Church history which were 
first put forward by mediaeval sects. They all 
spoke in riddles ; that is, by means of images, 
symbols, mystic numbers, forms of animals, and 
so on ; they half concealed what they meant to 
2 



18 THE STEAM ENGINE 

reveal. The reasons for this procedure are not 
far to seek; (1) clearness and distinctness would 
have been too profane, only the mysterious ap- 
pears divine ; (2) it was often dangerous to be 
too distinct. 

The book of Revelation begins by saying, 
"The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave 
unto Him, to shew unto His servants things 
which must shortly come to pass ; and He sent 
and signified it by His angel unto His servant 
John; who bare record of the word of God, and 
of the testimony of Jesus Christ, and of all things 
that He saw. Blessed is he that readeth, and 
they that hear the words of this prophecy, and 
keep those things which are written therein: for 
the time is at hand." 

Then St. John goes on to say : " I was in the 
Spirit on the Lord's day, and heard behind me 
a great voice, as of a trumpet, saying, I am 
Alpha and Omega, the first and the last: what 
thou seest, write in a book and send it unto the 
seven churches which are in Asia. After this 
(that is, after he had received and delivered the 
messages to the seven churches which were in 



FULFILLING PROPHECY. 19 

Asia), I looked, and, behold, a door was opened 
in heaven: and the first voice which I heard w r as 
as it w r ere of a trumpet talking with me ; which 
said, "Come up hither, and I will shew thee things 
which must be hereafter. And immediately I 
was in the Spirit : and, behold, a throne was 
set in heaven, and one sat on the throne. And 
he that sat was to look upon like a jasper and a 
sardine stone . and there was a rainbow round 
about the throne, in sight like unto an eme- 
rald." 

This is the Almighty Creator of all things sit- 
ting upon His throne. "And round about the 
throne were four and twenty seats ; and upon 
the seats I saw four and twenty elders sitting, 
clothed in white raiment: and they had on their 
heads crowns of gold. And before the throne 
there was a sea of glass like unto crystal : and 
in the midst of the throne, and round about the 
throne, were four beasts full of eyes before and 
behind. And the first beast was like a lion, and 
the second beast like a calf, and the third beast 
had a face as a man, and the fourth beast was 
like a flying eagle. And the four beasts had 



20 THE STEAM ENGINE 

each of them six wings about him ; and they 
were full of eyes within : and they rest not day 
and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God 
Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come. 
And when those beasts give glory and honor 
and thanks to Him that sat on the throne : 
Who liveth for ever and ever, the four and 
twenty elders fall down before Him that sat on 
the throne, and worship Him that liveth for 
ever and ever, and cast their crowns before the 
throne, saying, Thou art worthy, Lord, to 
receive glory and honor and power : for Thou 
hast created all things, and for Thy pleasure 
they are and w^ere created. And I saw in the 
right hand of Him that sat on the throne a 
book written within and on the back side, sealed 
with seven seals. And I saw a strong angel 
proclaiming with a loud voice, Who is worthy 
to open the book, and to loose the seven seals 
thereof? And no man in heaven, nor in earth, 
neither under the earth, was able to open the 
book, neither to look thereon. " 

Now this book was the future, or it contained 
future events that were to take place in this 



FULFILLING PROPHECY. 21 

world among the children of men. Who can 
look on the future? No mortal man can tell 
what a day may bring forth. 

"And I wept much, because no man was 
found worthy to open and to read the book, 
neither to look thereon. And one of the elders 
saith unto me, Weep not : behold, the Lion of 
the tribe of Juda, the Root of David, hath pre- 
vailed to open the book, and to loose the seven 
seals thereof. And I beheld, and, lo, in the 
midst of the throne and of the four beasts, and 
in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as it 
had been slain, having seven horns and seven 
eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent 
forth into all the earth. And He came and took 
the book out of the right hand of Him that sat 
on the throne. And when He had taken the 
book, the four beasts and the four and twenty 
elders fell down before the Lamb, having every 
one of them harps, and golden vials full of 
odours, which are the prayers of saints. And 
they sung a new song, saying, Thou art 
worthy to take the book and to open the seals 
thereof: for Thou wast slain, and hast redeemed 



22 THE STEAM ENGINE 

us to God by Thy blood out of every kindred, 
and tongue, and people, and nation ; and hast 
made us unto our God kings and priests: and 
we shall reign on the earth. And I beheld, and 
I heard the voice of many angels round about 
the throne, and the beasts, and the elders: and 
the number of them was ten thousand times ten 
thousand, and thousands of thousands." 

Now the remainder of this book of Revelation 
is given under the symbols of the opening 
of seven seals, and the sounding of seven 
trumpets, and the pouring out of seven 
vials. It is not our purpose to follow the opening 
of the seven seals, nor the sounding of the seven 
trumpets, any more than to say that at the 
opening of the seven seals, and at the sounding 
of the first six trumpets, there followed one con- 
tinued train of desolation, of woe and death. 
There were plagues, and famines, and earth- 
quakes, and pestilences, and war. It seemed as 
if there would be no end to woe and disaster ; 
but between the time of the sounding of the 
sixth and the seventh angel, a turning-point is 
reached. Between the time of the sounding of 



FULFILLING PROPHECY. 23 

the sixth and seventh angel, St. John says, chap- 
ter 10, " And I saw another mighty angel come 
down from heaven, clothed with a cloud : and a 
rainbow was upon his head, and his face was as 
it were the sun, and his feet as pillars of fire: 
and he had in his hand a little book open : and 
he set his right foot upon the sea, and his left 
foot on the earth, and cried with a loud voice, 
as when a lion roareth : and when he had cried, 
seven thunders uttered their voices. And when 
the seven thunders had uttered their voices, I 
was about to write : and I heard a voice from 
heaven saying unto me, Seal up those things 
which the seven thunders uttered, and write 
them not. And the angel which I saw stand 
upon the sea and upon the earth lifted up his 
hand to heaven, and sware by Him that liveth 
for ever and ever, who created heaven, and the 
things that therein are, and the earth, and the 
things that therein are, and the sea, and the 
things which are therein, that there should be 
time no longer : But in the days of the voice of 
the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, 
the mystery of God should be finished, as He 



24 THE STEAM ENGINE 

hath declared to His servants the prophets/ ' 
This mysterious vision had been seen by the 
prophets, more especially by the prophet Daniel. 
Now this brings us directly to the sounding of 
the seventh trumpet, chapter 11 : 15, "And the 
seventh angel sounded: and there were great 
voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this 
world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, 
and of His Christ ; and He shall reign for ever 
and ever. And the four and twenty elders, which 
sat before God on their seats, fell upon their 
faces, and worshiped God, saying, We give Thee 
thanks, Lord God Almighty, which art, and 
wast, and art to come; because Thouhast taken 
to Thee Thy great power, and hast reigned." 

Before the Lamb had taken the book from 
the right hand of Him that sat on/the throne, no 
man could look on the future; but after the 
seventh angel sounded, the four and twenty 
elders did look on the future, because the king- 
doms of this world are not yet become the king- 
doms of our Lord and His Christ, and they never 
have been : but to the four and twenty elders it 
is as if it had alreadycome to pass. The prophet 



FULFILLING PROPHECY. 25 

Isaiah spoke of the birth and the life and suffer- 
ings and death of our Saviour as if they had al- 
ready taken place, although the prophet had 
written seven hundred years before the Saviour 
was born. Hence, of our Saviour's birth, the 
prophet says, "Unto us a child is born, unto 
us a son is given." Of His sufferings, the prophet 
says that "He was led as a lamb to the 
slaughter, He was wounded for our transgres- 
sions, He was bruised for our iniquities: the 
chastisement of our peace was upon Him." And 
of His death the prophet says, "He was cut off 
out of the land of the living; He made His grave 
with the wicked, and with the rich in His death." 
And after the prophet Isaiah had foretold some 
of the blessings that should come to the people 
under the Saviour's reign, as he told them that 
"the wilderness and the solitary place shall be 
glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice, 
and blossom as the rose. It shall blossom 
abundantly, and rejoice even with joy and 
singing: the glory of Lebanon shall be given 
unto it, the excellency of Carmel and Sharon ; 
they shall see the glory of the Lord, and the ex- 



26 THE STEAM ENGINE 

cellency of our God. Then the eyes of the blind 
shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall 
be unstopped. Then shall the lame man leap as 
an hart, and the tongue of the dumb shall sing.' ' 

Then the prophet told the people of some 
terrible woes that would befall them for their 
sin, before the Saviour w T ould come. The 
prophet says, "Woe unto them that call evil 
good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, 
and light for darkness; that put bitter for 
sweet, and sweet for bitter! Woe unto them 
that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in 
their own sight! Woe unto them that rise up 
early in the morning, that they may follow 
strong drinks ; and continue till night, till wine 
inflame them. Therefore my people are gone 
into captivity, because they have no knowl- 
edge. " But the prophet says that "the ran- 
somed of the Lord shall return, and come to 
Zion, with songs and everlasting joy upon 
their heads : they shall obtain joy and gladness, 
and sighing and sorrow shall flee away." 

Now, in exactly the same way, St. John goes 
on to reveal some terrible woes that shall befall 



FULFILLING PROPHECY. 27 

the human race before the kingdoms of this 
world really are become the kingdoms of our 
Lord and His Christ. It is to a very brief con- 
sideration of these awful calamities that we 
shall now direct our attention for a little while. 
A celebrated writer on prophecy, Mr. J. M. 
Swormstedt, said a little while ago that no 
mortal man has ever j 7 et been able to explain 
the twelfth chapter of Revelation. But in the 
twelfth chapter, St. John says: " And there ap- 
peared a great wonder in heaven; a woman 
clothed with the sun, and the moon under her 
feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars: 
and she being with child cried, travailing in 
birth, and pained to be delivered. And there ap- 
peared another wonder in heaven; and behold 
a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten 
horns, and seven crowns upon his heads. And 
his tail drew the third part of the stars of 
heaven, and did cast them to the earth: and the 
dragon stood before the woman which was 
ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as 
soon as it was born. And she brought forth a 
man child, who was to rule all nations with a 



28 THE STEAM ENGINE 

rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto 
God and to his throne." 

Now that this woman is the Church, and that 
this child is the Saviour, will not admit of one 
single doubt. Because it is said that the 
child shall rule all nations, no promise has ever 
been made to any other child that has ever been 
born, that he should rule all nations ; but the 
promise to this child is that he shall rule all 
nations with a rod of iron ; and he was caught 
up unto God and His throne. 

Now this agrees exactly with our Saviour's 
own teaching in the parable of the wicked 
husbandmen. In that parable our Saviour says, 
in the twenty-first chapter of Matthew, that 
41 There was a certain householder, which 
planted a vineyard, and hedged it round about, 
and digged a winepress in it, and built a 
tower, and let it out to husbandmen, and went 
into a far country : and when the time of the 
fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the 
husbandmen, that they might receive of the 
fruits of it. And the husbandmen took the serv- 
ants, and beat one, and killed another, and 



FULFILLING PROPHECY. 29 

stoned another. And again he sent unto them 
other servants more than the first : and they did 
unto them likewise. But last of all he sent unto 
them his son, saying, They will reverence my 
son. But when the husbandmen saw the son, 
they said among themselves, This is the heir; 
come, let us kill him, and let us seize on his 
inheritance. And they caught him, and cast 
him out of the vineyard, and slew him. ,, And 
he has been out of the vineyard ever since, and 
he was caught up unto God and his throne, but 
he shall rule all nations with a rod of iron. 

We will now leave the child with God upon 
His throne, and follow the fortunes of the woman 
for a little while. It is said that she "fled into 
the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared 
of God, that they should feed her there a thou- 
sand two hundred and three score days. And 
there was war in heaven; Michael and his angels 
fought against the dragon ; and the dragon 
fought and his angels, and prevailed not ; neith- 
er was their place found any more in heaven.' ' 
The great red dragon had been foiled in his at- 
tempt to devour the child as soon as it was 



30 THE STEAM ENGINE 

born, which attempt he made through the 
agency of Herod, when Herod "sent forth and 
slew all the children that were in Bethlehem, and 
in all the coasts thereof, from two years old and 
tinder, according to the time which he had dili- 
gently inquired of the wise men." Now this 
butchery of Herod's brings Roman paganism in 
as an agency of the great red dragon. The 
dragon being foiled in his attempt to devour the 
child as soon as it was born, marshals his le- 
gions and makes his final assault upon heaven, 
and without even assailing the throne up to 
which the child had been caught. He is finally 
and forever driven out of heaven, with all his 
angels, by Michael and his angels, creatures 
whom he always supposed to be inferior to 
himself. 

" And the great dragon was cast out, that old 
serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which de- 
ceived the whole world : he was cast out into 
the earth, and his angels were cast out with 
him. And I heard aloud voice saying in heaven, 
Now is come salvation, and strength, and the 
kingdom of our God, and the power of his 



FULFILLING PROPHECY. 31 

Christ : for the accuser of our brethren is cast 
down, which accused them before our God day 
and night. Therefore, rejoice, ye heavens, and 
ye that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabiters of 
the earth and of the sea ! for the devil is come 
down unto you, having great wrath, because 
he knoweth that he hath but a short time." 
The great red dragon, or the devil, being foiled 
in his attempt to devour the child as soon 
as it was born, and being driven out of heaven 
by Michael and his angels, and being cast out 
into the earth and knowing that he hath but 
a short time to pour out his wrath upon 
the inhabitants of the earth and the sea, 
it might naturally be expected that his wrath 
during that short time would be terrible. 

''And when the dragon saw that he was cast 
out unto the earth, he persecuted the woman 
which brought forth the man child." Now these 
persecutions began in the days of the apostles, 
and continued down through the centuries 
until the time of the Reformation. " And the 
dragon was wroth with the woman, and went 
to make war with the remnant of her seed, 



32 THE STEAM ENGINE 

which keep the commandments of God and the 
testimony of Jesus Christ. " 

Now we shall have need to pursue this a little 
further, to see the agency with which the dragon 
carried on his merciless war with the remnant 
of the woman's seed during the time of the 
Reformation and down to the time of the Amer- 
ican Revolution, or till the time of the war for 
Independence in this country. In the thirteenth 
chapter, St. John goes on to say : " And I stood 
upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise 
up out of the the sea, having seven heads and 
ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and 
upon his heads the name of blasphemy. And 
the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, 
and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his 
mouth as the mouth of a lion : and the dragon 
gave him his power, and his seat, and great au- 
thority. And they worshiped the dragon which 
gave power unto the beast: and they wor- 
shiped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the 
beast? who is able to make war with him? 
And there w r as given unto him a mouth speak- 
ing great things and blasphemies ; and power 



FULFILLING PROPHECY. 33 

was given unto him to continue forty and two 
months. And he opened his mouth in blasphemy 
against God, to blaspheme His name, and His 
tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven. And 
it was given unto him to make war with the 
saints, and to overcome them. ,, 

Power was given unto this beast to make war 
with Wycliff, and to overcome him ; power was 
given unto him to make war with Luther, and 
to overcome him ; power was given unto him 
to make war with Latimer and Ridley, and to 
overcome them ; power was given unto him to 
make war with Knox, and to overcome him ; 
power was given him to make war with John 
Huss of Bohemia, and to overcome him. It is 
estimated that no less than fifty millions of 
people perished in Great Britain and Ireland, 
in France and Germany and Bohemia through 
the agency of this horrible beast. 

But the American Revolution gave the dragon 
that gave power unto the beast (that is, it gave 
the devil) a deadly wound that will never be 
healed. And when what is known as our "Bill 
of Rights/' as contained in the first article of 
3 



34 THE STEAM ENGINE 

amendments to the Constitution, was secured, 
then that buried the beast that had on his heads 
the names of blasphemy, in the grave, from 
whence he will never know any resurrection. 
The dragon carried on his relentless war with 
the remnant of the woman's seed through the 
agency of this beast, by putting Protestants 
and Catholics to torturing and murdering each 
other; but as long as our glorious star-spangled 
banner floats in the breeze, he can never do that 
again. He will have to trample our national 
ensigns and our national honor into the dust, 
and blot American history out of existence and 
out of remembrance, before ever he can do that 
again; and it is not in the power of the devil 
and his angels to do it. 

The War of 1812, in which the great battle of 
Lake Erie was fought, in all probability, 
brought the short time in which the devil was 
allowed to pour out his wrath upon the inhabit- 
ers of the sea, to an end. But you may say 
that there have been battles on the sea since the 
War of 1812, j^ears for which we give the devil 
no credit; for tyranny and oppression have 



FULFILLING PROPHECY. 35 

gone down tinder every blow that has been 
struck upon the sea since his satanic majesty's 
time thereon has come to an end. 

We shall now return to the child that was 
born, who should rule all nations with a rod of 
iron, and also to the mighty angel that St. John 
saw come down from heaven clothed with a 
cloud, and with a rainbow upon his head : and 
stood upon the sea and upon the earth and 
lifted up his hand to heaven and sware by Him 
that liveth forever and ever, that there should 
be time no longer. 

The Rev. John Wesley, the founder of Method- 
ism, says in his notes on the book of Revelation, 
that the swearing of this angel is peculiarly for 
the comfort of holy men who are afflicted under 
the third woe. Now to get some definite idea 
as to who or what this angel is, and what he is 
intended to symbolize, we shall here quote just 
what Mr. Wesley says in his note on the sixth 
verse of the tenth chapter of Revelation. 

Mr. Wesley says : " The six preceding trumpets 
pass without any such solemnity. It is the 
trumpet of the seventh angel alone which is con- 



Q 



6 THE STEAM ENGINE 



firmed by so high an oath, by Him that liveth 
forever and ever, before whom a thousand years 
are but a day, who created the heavens, the 
earth, the sea and the things that are therein, 
and consequently has the sovereign power over 
all : therefore all his enemies, though they rage a 
while in heaven, on the sea, and on the earth, 
yet must give place to him. That there should 
be no more a time, but in the days of the seventh 
angel the mystery of God shall be fulfilled; that 
is, a time, a chronos, shall not expire before the 
mystery is fulfilled. A chronos (1111 years) 
will nearly pass before then, but not quite. " The 
period, then, which we may term anon-chronos, 
not a whole time, must be a little shorter than 
this. The non-chronos here mentioned seems 
to begin in the year 800 (when Charles the 
Great instituted in the west a new line of 
emperors or of many kings), to end in the year 
1836; and to contain, among other things, the 
short time of the third woe, and the three times 
and a half of the woman in the wilderness, and 
the duration of the beast. Now is it not re- 



FULFILLING PROPHECY. 37 

markable that all these times should converge 
to that very same year, the year 1836 ? 

From a table of figures that we find in Mr. 
Wesley's notes we take the following. Compar- 
ing the prophecy and history together, Mr. 
Wesley says that they seem to begin and 
end nearly thus: " The non-chronos extends 
from about 800 to 1836 ; the little time from 
947 to 1836 ; the time times and a half from 
1068 to 1836." Now what are the inferences to 
be drawn from, or the conclusions to be arrived 
at, from this train of reasoning ? There is but 
one logical conclusion to come to, and it is as 
plain as that two and two make four, and that 
is, that in or about the year 1836 the time had 
arrived for the child thatliad been born to begin 
to rule all nations with a rod of iron ; and the 
time had arrived for the mighty angel with the 
rainbow upon his head to make his appearance. 
Now in view of the terrible woes that have be- 
fallen the human race in the past, the burden of 
devout and enquiring minds has been what this 
ruling with the rod of iron could really mean. 
And the question has arisen as to whether it 



38 THE STEAM ENGINE 

means the rod of war. But the child who was 
to rule all nations is the Prince of Peace, and of 
the increase of His government and peace there 
shall be no end. It is impossible that the Prince 
of Peace should rule all nations with the rod of 
war. 

Then is it the rod of oppression ? 

" He comes to break oppression, 
And set the captive free, 
To take away transgression, 
And rule in equity," 

says Dr. Isaac Watts. 

Then is it the rod of severity ? "He shall not 
strive nor cry, neither shall any man hear His 
voice in the streets. A bruised reed shall He not 
break, the smoking flax shall He not quench, 
until He sends forth judgment unto victory ; and 
in His name shall the Gentiles trust. " He is 
going to gain the victory and rule all nations 
with a rod of iron, without any severity. 

The Psalmist says of His rule, in Psalm 72 : 6, 
that "He shall come down like the rain upon 
the mown grass: as showers that water the 
earth. In His days shall the righteous flourish ; 



FULFILLING PROPHECY. 39 

and abundance of peace so long as the moon en- 
dureth." And the moon is likely to endure for 
quite a while yet. And "He shall have domin- 
ion also from sea to sea, and from the river unto 
the ends of the earth. " 

The prophet Isaiah says, chapter 11:1-9, 
4< and there shall come forth a rod out of the stem 
of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his 
roots: And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest 
upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understand- 
ing, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of 
knowledge and the fear of the Lord ; and he 
shall make Him of quick understanding in the 
fear of the Lord : and He shall not judge after 
the sight of His eyes, neither reprove after the 
hearing of His ears: But with righteousness 
shall He judge the poor, and reprove with equity 
for the meek of the earth : and He shall smite the 
earth with the rod of His mouth, and with the 
breath of His lips shall He slay the wicked. And 
righteousness shall be the girdle of His loins, 
and faithfulness the girdle of his reins. The 
wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the 
leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the 



40 THE STEAM ENGINE 

calf and the young lion and the fatling together; 
and a little child shall lead them. And the cow 
and the bear shall feed ; their young ones shall 
lie down together : and the lion shall eat straw 
like the ox. And the sucking child shall play on 
the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall 
put his hand on the cockatrice' den. They shall 
not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain ; 
for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of 
the Lord, as the waters cover the sea." 

Professor Fairbairn says in his book on Iron, 
that a very slight acquaintance with nat- 
ural science will exhibit the wisdom of a bounti- 
ful Creator, in the wide diffusion and abundant 
supply of iron and coal, two of the greatest 
boons conferred upon the human race. If we 
refer to the history of the past, and trace the 
change from barbarism to a state of intellectual 
culture, we shall see at every step the contriv- 
ances and appliances of the " cunning workers 
in iron." These have always been the associ- 
ates of mental progress and the forerunners to 
supply to the wants and necessities of our social 
existence. Iron, on account of its abundance, 



FULFILLING PROPHECY. 41 

working qualities and tenacity, is probably the 
most useful and valuable of metals. Iron accom- 
modates itself to all our wants and desires, and 
even to our caprices. It is a medicine of much 
virtue and the only metal friendly to the human 
frame. In its primitive position it is commingled 
with the earth's strata in bountiful profusion; 
it is found in various combinations and condi- 
tions in every formation, and it is a constituent 
element of both animals and vegetables. 

Now we shall not attempt to mystify any- 
thing, but we shall let historical facts speak for 
themselves, on this ruling with a rod of iron. 

In the year 1837, Queen Victoria ascended the 
throne of Great Britain, and during the early 
years of her reign, George Stephenson, the inven- 
tor of the locomotive-engine, was one of her 
right-hand men. In an editorial on the Queen's 
Jubilee, the (Cleveland) Leader says : " The fifty 
years of Queen Victoria's reign have been the 
golden era of the world's history, in which the 
people of Great Britain, next to our own, have 
played the most conspicuous part. The same 
racial impulses and characteristics that have 



42 THE STEAM ENGINE 

made this the greatest nation on earth, have 
made Great Britain the greatest monarchy of 
alltime. ,, 

Then, after giving some figures on the increase 
of the inhabitants, the Leader says that indus- 
trial growth has more than kept pace with the 
increase of population, that the production of 
coal has increased three-fold, and that of iron 
nine hundred per cent, in the last fifty years. 
And that four billion dollars have been invested 
in railways in Great Britain alone. And prob- 
ably as much more has been spent in the rail- 
way systems of Canada, Australia and India. 

Van Buren Denslow, LL. D., sa}^s in his 
great work on the 'Principles of Economic Phil- 
osophy, ' that the railways and the transpor- 
tation machinery of the United States are worth 
seven billion dollars, and the manufacturing 
machinery is worth three billion dollars. Now 
all this immense wealth that is ruling these two 
great and powerful nations has come into ex- 
istence since the year 1836, when, according to 
our reasoning, the ruling with the rod of iron 
should have begun. 



FULFILLING PROPHECY. 43 

The statistical report of the American Iron 
and Steel Association for 1889, says that the 
world's annual production of iron ore is more 
than fifty-three million tons, of coal two hun- 
dred and forty-six million tons. The report 
says that the world's production of pig iron has 
increased seventy-six per cent, since 1878. The 
Hon. Edward Atkinson of Boston, and the 
Hon. Abram S. Hewitt, and others who have 
given this subject their careful consideration, 
maintain that the world's present production 
of pig iron is twenty-eight million tons per year. 
And, basing their calculations upon the rate of 
increase for the past few years, they maintain 
that the world will want and must have not 
less than fifty six million tons of iron made in 
the year 1900. The impression is abroad that 
there will be almost an infinite demand for iron 
in the next few years, and that the rod of iron 
will rule all nations. 

With the exception of what was made in Eng- 
land for a few years pre vious to that time, there 
is in all probability more iron produced now in 
one single year than there was in all the entire 



44 THE STEAM ENGINE 

history of the human race, before the year 1836. 

"And unto the angel of the church of Thy atira 
write ; These things saith the Son of God, who 
hath his eyes like unto a flame of fire, and his 
feet are like fine brass : he that overcometh and 
keepeth my words unto the end, to him will I 
give power over the nations : and he shall rule 
them with a rod of iron ; and I will give him the 
morning star." We shall now scrutinize this 
mighty angel, from the rainbow that is on his 
head, down to the earth and the sea upon which 
he places his feet. He should have made his ap- 
pearance about the year 1836, when this great 
activity in the iron trade began. We have ten 
propositions that we shall now proceed to offer, 
to prove that this angel is none other than the 
steam-engine, as it now exists. 

Our first proposition is, that this is the same 
vision that Daniel saw, some six hundred years 
before it was seen by St. John. In the tenth chap- 
ter of his prophecy, Daniel says : "In the third 
year of Cyrus, king of Persia, a thing was re- 
vealed unto Daniel, whose name was called Belte- 
shazzar ; and the thing was true, but the time 



FULFILLING PROPHECY. 45 

appointed was long: and he understood the 
thing, and had understanding of the vision. In 
those days I Daniel was mourning three full 
weeks. I ate no pleasant bread, neither came 
flesh nor wine in my mouth, neither did I 
anoint myself at all, till three whole weeks were 
fulfilled. And in the four and twentieth day of 
the first month, as I was by the side of the great 
river which is Hiddekel ; then I lifted up mine 
eyes and looked, and behold a certain man 
clothed in linen. " John says, "I saw a mighty 
angel clothed with a cloud. " Daniel says, "I 
lifted up mine eyes and looked, and behold a cer- 
tain man clothed in linen. " Now, to show that 
men are sometimes called angels, or that angels 
are sometimes called men, in the Bible, we shall 
mention two circumstances, one from the Old 
Testament and the other from the New Testa- 
ment. 

In the nineteenth chapter of the book of Gene- 
sis, it is said : " And there came two angels to 
Sodom at even; and Lot sat in the gate of 
Sodom : and Lot seeing them rose up to meet 
them ; and he bowed himself with his face toward 



46 THE STEAM ENGINE 

the ground ; and he said, Behold now, my lords, 
turn in, I pray you, into your servant's house, 
and tarry all night, and wash your feet, and ye 
shall rise up early, and go on your ways. And 
they said, Nay ; but we will abide in the street 
all night. And he pressed upon them greatly ; 
and they turned in unto him, and entered into his 
house ; and he made them a feast, and did bake 
unleavened bread, and they did eat. But before 
they lay down, the men of the city, even the men 
of Sodom, compassed the house round, both old 
and young, all the people from every quarter : 
and they called unto Lot, and said unto him, 
Where are the men which came in to thee this 
night ? bring them out unto us, that we might 
know them." 

On the morning that our Lord rose from the 
dead, St. Luke says: "Now upon the first day of 
the week, very early in the morning, they came 
unto the sepulchre, bringing the spices which 
they had prepared, and certain others with 
them. And they found the stone rolled away 
from the sepulchre. And they entered in, and 
found not the body of the Lord Jesus. And it 



FULFILLING PROPHECY. 47 

came to pass, as they were much perplexed 
thereabout, behold, two men stood by them in 
shining garments: They said unto them, Why 
seek ye the living among the dead ? He is not 
here, but is risen. It was Mary Magdalene, 
and Joanna, and Mary, the mother of James, 
and other women that were with them, that 
told these things unto the apostles." 

The same writer says, " And, behold, two of 
them went that same day to a village called 
Emmaus, and they talked together of all these 
things which had happened/ ' And as they com- 
muned and reasoned about, and were sad at 
what had happened, a stranger drew near and 
asked them of what manner their communica- 
tions were, and what they were sad about, and 
they told him. And they said, "but we trusted 
that it had been He which should have redeemed 
Israel ; and beside all this, to-day is the third 
day since these things were done. Yea," they 
said, "and certain women also of our company 
made us astonished, which were early at the 
sepulchre ; and when they found not His body, 
they came, saying, that they had also saw a 



48 THE STEAM ENGINE 

vision 01 angels, which said that He was alive. " 
Now, every student of the Bible knows that 
the same persons are referred to in both these 
cases, although in one place they are called men, 
and in another place they are called angels. 
And so it is in this case ; the vision is the same, 
as the sequel will prove. Daniel says, "Then I 
lifted up mine eyes and looked, and behold a 
certain man clothed in linen, whose loins were 
girded with fine gold of Uphaz : his body also 
was like the beryl, and his face as the appear- 
ance of lightening, and his eyes as lamps of fire, 
and his arms and his feet like in colour to pol- 
ished brass, and the voice of his words like the 
voice of a multitude. And I Daniel alone saw 
the vision : for the men that were with me saw 
not the vision ; but a great quaking fell upon 
them, and they fled to hide themselves. " 

Now the prophet Daniel not only foretold 
coming events, but told exactly the time of their 
accomplishment ; and after he had seen this re- 
markable vision, some leagues and conflicts be- 
tween certain powers were revealed to him, and 
also a view of the general resurrection; then the 



FULFILLING PROPHECY. 49 

prophet returns to this mysterious man that he 
saw by the side of the river, in chapter 12, verses 
5-7, "Then I Daniel looked, and, behold, there 
stood other two, one on this side of the bank of 
the river \ and the other on that side of the bank 
of the river. And one said to the man clothed in 
linen, which was upon the waters of the river, 
How long shall it be to the end of these won- 
ders? And I heard the man clothed in linen, 
which was upon the waters of the river, when 
he held up his right hand and his left hand unto 
heaven, and sware by Him that liveth forever, 
that it shall be for a time, times, and a half; 
and when he shall have accomplished to scatter 
the power of the holy people, all these things 
shall be finished. " That this vision is the same 
— and the times here mentioned—as that in Rev- 
elation, all of which was to end in the year 
1836, there is no room to doubt. 

Our second proposition is, that this angel had 
a rainbow upon his head. From the phrase- 
ology used in Revelation, where it is said that 
this angel lifted up his hand to heaven, and 

sware by Him that liveth for ever and ever, 

4 



50 THE STEAM ENGINE 

that there would be time no longer, it has been 
supposed that this angel was coming down to 
wreck the universe, to suspend, or to abolish, 
the law of gravitation, and throw creation into 
a ten thousand times worse chaos than it had 
ever known before ; but this angel has a rainbow 
upon his head. Now what does the rainbow 
signify in the Bible ? Does it signify destruction ? 
No ; it signifies protection ; it is the token of a 
covenant. Thus, w r hen Noah and his family 
came forth out of the ark after the flood, it is 
said that "God spake unto Noah and to his sons 
with him, saying, And I, behold I will establish 
my covenant with you, and with your seed after 
you; neither shall all flesh be cut off any more 
by the waters of a flood ; neither shall there any 
more be a flood to destroy the earth. And God 
said, This is the token of the covenant which I 
make between me and you, and every living 
creature that is with you, for perpetual genera- 
tions : I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall 
be for a token of a covenant between me and the 
earth. And it shall come to pass, when I bring 
a cloud over the earth, that the bow shall be 



FULFILLING PROPHECY. 51 

seen in the cloud : and I will rememoer my cove- 
nant, which is between me and you and every 
living creature of all flesh. And the bow shall 
be in the cloud; and I will look upon it, that I 
may remember the everlasting covenant between 
God and every living creature of all flesh that is 
upon the earth. " 

In view of the fact that God has made the 
rainbow a token of an everlasting covenant 
between Himself and every living creature of all 
flesh that is upon the earth, Bible expositors 
have said that this is the angel of the covenant, 
because he has the covenant token upon his 
head. Now the angel of the covenant is the Lord 
Jesus Christ Himself. And if this was the Lord 
Jesus Christ Himself, He would swear by Him- 
self, and not swear by Him that liveth for ever 
and ever. This is a created angel, whoever he is 
or whatever he is intended to symbolize, and he 
is closely allied to the angel of the covenant; 
the fact is, or appears to be, that he is the 
forerunner of the angel of the covenant, and 
that he is sent to prepare the way for our Lord's 
coming to reign, exactly the same as John the 



52 THE STEAM ENGINE 

Baptist was sent to prepare the way for His 
coming to preach. And the valleys are being 
exalted, and the hills are being made low; the 
crooked are being made straight and the rough 
places plain ; and the glory of the Lord is about 
to be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, 
for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it. All 
flesh did not see the glory of the Lord together 
under the administration of John the Baptist, 
but all flesh will see it together under the ad- 
ministration of this second great forerunner. 

Our third proposition is that this angel's face 
was, as it were, the sun. Now, what are some 
of the general characteristics of the sun ? The 
primary object of the rising sun is to dispell the 
darkness, and it is true, as the poet says, that 

" The night of the ages 

Was weary and long, 
And darkness gave cover 

And shelter to wrong ; 
But the wearisome night 

Of oppression is past, 
And the shadowing darkness 

Has lifted at last." 

Uriah Smith says, in his book on the United 



FULFILLING PROPHECY. 53 

States in prophecy, "Go back fifty years, and 
the world, with respect to those things which 
tend to domestic convenience and comfort, 
and the means of illumination and the produc- 
tion and application of heat, and the perform- 
ance of various household operations, with re- 
spect to the methods of rapid locomotion from 
place to place, and the transmission of intelli- 
gence from point to point, stood about where it 
did in the days of the patriarchs. Suddenly, the 
waters of that long stream, over whose drowsy 
surface scarcely a ripple of improvement had 
passed for three thousand years, broke into the 
white foam of violent agitation. The world 
awoke from the slumber and darkness of ages. 
The divine finger lifted the seal from the prophetic 
books and brought the predicted time, when 
many would run to and fro, and knowledge 
should be increased/ ' 

Sir Edward Thornton, the British Minister 
Plenipotentiary to this country, in his address 
at the opening of our Centennial exhibition at 
Philadelphia in 1876, referringto the exhibition 
in Londoninl851, said: '* We exhibited pottery 



54 THE STEAM ENGINE^ 

then that our ploughmen would not now use, 
and all that ad vancement in twenty-five years." 

In the year 1833, the British government abol- 
ished the last remains of slavery throughout 
all the British empire, and Great Britain being 
mistress of the seas, slavery's doom upon the 
seas was then sealed. 

In the year 1835 an order in council was 
obtained for the appointment of a chief engineer 
and inspector of machinery at Woolwich dock- 
yard, which was the beginning of the engineer- 
ing department in the British navy. 

In the year 1836 the Great Western Steamship 
Company was organized. And their first steam- 
ship, the Great Western, sailed from Bristol on 
April 8, 1838, and reached New York on the 
morning of the twenty-third of the same month, 
making her return passage in fourteen days. 

It was, in all probability, then that this mighty 
angel with the rainbow upon his head, with one 
end of the rainbow resting upon the British 
Isles, representing the eastern hemisphere, and 
the other end resting upon the United States, 
representing the western hemisphere, and span- 



FULFILLING PROPHECY. 55 

ning the Atlantic ocean and uniting the earth 
under one everlasting covenant, set one foot 
upon the sea. And it turned its face as it were 
the sun, out over the broad expanse of ocean, 
and lifted up its hand to heaven, and sware by 
Him that livethfor ever and ever, that the time 
of slavery and piracy and murder upon the sea 
should be no longer. And where are slavery and 
piracy and murder upon the sea no w ? They are 
among the former things that have passed away; 
they are never to return. There is not a nook 
or a corner upon the bosom of the waters where 
an intruder could hide from the flaming eyes of 
this mighty angel. This mighty angel will guard 
the sea from all intruders until the sea shall give 
up the dead that are in it. 

Another general characteristic of the sun is to 
prolong life. When the steam-engine came into 
existence the average length of human life was 
about twenty-one years, now it is over forty- 
one in Christian countries. The death rate of 
the great city of London, the world's metropo- 
lis, at the present time, is but a small fraction 
over eighteen per thousand in a year ; this will 



56 THE STEAM ENGINE 

give an average of from fifty to fifty-five years ; 
and yet they sometimes tell us that we are starv- 
ing in the great cities for want of oxygen. Con- 
sidering the multiplied comforts and conven- 
iences that the steam-engine has brought within 
the reach of all, it is but reasonable to suppose 
that the average of life will continue to lengthen ; 
and famines and pestilences and wars, as they 
existed in the past, will be impossible iii the 
future, as this mighty angel advances. 

Our fourth proposition is, that this man had 
his loins girded with fine gold of Uphaz. Now 
what does the girding of the loins signify in the 
Scriptures. In Oriental countries all the people 
wore long, flowing robes, and when a man ap- 
peared with his robe girded about his loins, it 
w 7 as evidence that he was prepared to go on a 
journey, or that he was ready to run a race. 
And so the prophet Daniel says of the man that 
he saw, whose loins were girded with fine gold 
of Uphaz, an unmistakable evidence that he was 
ready for action — he was ready to run. 

The people of Nineveh prided themselves ex- 
ceedingly in their jumping chariots, their pranc- 



FULFILLING PROPHECY. 57 

ing horses and rattling wheels. But the prophet 
Nahum told them that when Nineveh had been 
laid waste, and was set as a gazing stock— and 
that is just what Nineveh is now — that there 
would be better chariots than theirs. For the 
prophet says, in chapter 2, verses 3-4, "The 
chariots shall be with flaming torches in the day 
of his preparation ; the chariots shall rage in the 
streets, they shall jostle one against another in 
the broad ways, and they shall run like the 
lightnings. " Now the lightnings can only run 
in their own prescribed tracks; they can only 
run in or from clouds that are over-charged 
with electricity. Now let us suppose that we 
are visiting one of our great depots or railway 
stations on a lovely summer morning. As we 
arrive, the train-men are busy making up a train ; 
whether this train is to carry an excursion party 
or is loaded with merchandise, it makes no dif- 
ference. No horses, camels, mules or drome- 
daries are seen to move this long row of cara- 
vans ; but we move on to the end of the train, 
and at the head of the train and coupled to it, 
there stands a magnificent chariot. If it is 



58 THE STEAM ENGINE 

standing where it can reflect the rays of the 
summer's sun, it will make your eyes dazzle to 
look at it. And there he stands, with his loins 
girded with fine gold of Uphaz, or with what is 
just as brilliant and as dazzling. He looks like 
a thing that can run. Oh, yes, he is like a young 
colt ; he has got the run in him ; he can run like 
the lightnings. But what is this magnificent 
creature we are looking at ? Is it a man or is it 
an angel ? Is it an earthly creature or is it an 
heavenly creature ? The fact is, that it is a com- 
bination of both. This man is a compound 
being. If this man or this angel or this chariot 
did not possess a compound nature, then, ac- 
cording to the universal law of gravitation and 
the inertia of matter, it must stand where it is 
forever, because matter does not possess any 
self-moving power. It does not and cannot, 
under any circumstances, move itself. 

When the prophet Ezekiel was sent to proph- 
esy against the idolatry of the children of Israel, 
there was revealed unto him a vision of living 
creatures and of wheels. Now, it is generally 
supposed that these wheels symbolize the provi- 



FULFILLING PROPHECY. 59 

dences and the agencies that the Almighty, in 
His infinite wisdom, would use to uproot and 
to destroy the rebellious from the face of the 
earth ; to work out the salvation of His people 
and fill the earth with His glory. 

In his vision of what is called the vision of 
the coals of fire, and the vision of the cherubim, 
chapter 10, verses 6—11, the prophet Ezekiel 
says, " And it came to pass, that when he had 
commanded the man clothed with linen, saying, 
Take fire from between the wheels, from between 
the cherubim ; then he went in, and stood beside 
the wheels. And one cherub stretched forth his 
hand from between the cherubim unto the fire 
that w T as between the cherubim, and took 
thereof, and put it into the hands of him that 
was clothed with linen; who took it, and went 
out." 

Now, w^hen the fire that was between the 
wheels had been adjusted and set in order, then 
the man clothed in linen, whose loins were girded 
with fine gold of |Uphaz, w as ready to move, he 
was readv for action. Is it not remarkable that 
iust at this time in his vision the prophet says, 



60 THE STEAM ENGINE 

* ' And there appeared in the cherubim the form 
of a man's hand under their wings." This cher- 
ubim that the prophet saw is so inert in itself 
that it cannot move its own wings— a man's 
hand must move them. 

Then the prophet says, "And when I looked, 
behold, the four wheels by the cherubim, one 
wheel by one cherub, and another wheel by an- 
other cherub : and the appearance of the wheels 
was as the colour of a bervl stone. And as for 
their appearances, they four had one like- 
ness, as if a wheel had been in the midst of a 
wheel." Now it is as plain as plain can be, that 
inspiration is here showing that this cherubim's 
motion and its locomotion are produced by the 
pattern and form of its own wheels; for the 
prophet says they were "as if a wheel had been 
in the midst of a wheel." 

The immortal George Stephenson, the inventor 
of the locomotive engine, himself proved that 
the power that gives it motion came directly 
from the sun. And the curves of motion that it 
produces from the patterns of its own wheels 
are as celestial and eternal and divine as the 



FULFILLING PROPHECY. 61 

motions of the sun and the moon and the stars. 
Its lines and curves of motion are produced by 
its own locomotion, and all the skill and ingenu- 
ity upon the earth cannot alter one line or curve 
of its motion a single hair's breadth. They are 
as eternal as the eternal Spirit of God, who is 
the author of its motion. The prophet says, 
"And when they went, they went upon their 
four sides ; they turned not as they went, but to 
the place whither the head looked they followed 
it ; they turned not as they went." 

Our fifth proposition is, that Daniel says that 
this man's body also was like the beryl. Ezekiel 
says that the color of the wheels was of the color 
of a beryl stone. Now w-hat is beryl ? Beryl is a 
mineral. Your body and mine, and every other 
man's body that belongs to Adam's race, was 
made out of the dust of the ground: "Dust 
thou art, and unto dust thou shalt return." But 
here is a man, and his body is also like the beryl; 
it is not like a body that is made out of the dust 
of the ground, but it is like a body that is made 
out of the minerals of the ground. 

Beryl, among the minerals or metals, was dis- 



62 THE STEAM ENGINE 

tinguished for its superior hardness. It is found 
in its original state in the shape of prisms or 
hexagonal cylindrical ; it was used quite exten- 
sively as jewelry by the Romans in the shape of 
hexagon cylinderi. Beryl varies in quality and 
in color. When we take into consideration its 
various qualities and colors, and also the shape 
in which it is found in its primitive beds, we see 
that there is no other mineral or metal that the 
prophet could have mentioned that so fully rep- 
resents the body of the steam-engine as beryl 
does. The hand of inspiration is here clearly 
seen guiding the prophet's pen; the cylindrical 
shape of this man's body is vividly symbolized 
and foreshown in the beryl. And then it is sup- 
posed that the beryl here mentioned is the same 
as the chrysolite of the ancients, which includes 
all stones of a golden or yellowish color. Iron 
and steel and copper and brass, when put to 
useful and ornamental purposes, fulfill to the 
very letter all the requirements of the beryl, of 
which this man's body was like, whose body 
also was like the beryl. 
Our sixth proposition is, that this man's arms 



FULFILLING PROPHECY. 63 

and his feet were like in color to polished brass. 
If you will go down to our harbor (Cleveland) 
when the magnificent steamer City of Cleveland 
is at her dock, in viewing her ponderous machin- 
ery, if you will look high enough, you will see a 
great beam, and when the steamer moves off 
from her moorings this great beam will sway, 
assuming a walking position. Now what do 
you call that a walking-beam for ? Is it because 
it is the one foot that this mighty angel placed 
upon the sea? And it is in color like unto pol- 
ished brass. 

If you will look a little more carefully at our 
steam-engines as they stand at our depots or 
stations, or as they pass along our railroads, or 
if you should look at any of the mighty engines 
that keep the wheels and the machinery of our 
mills and manufactories in almost perpetual 
motion, you wall see arms or rods of iron. These 
arms or rods of iron are known to steam-engi- 
neers as the connecting-rod, and the piston-rod, 
and the eccentric-rod, and so on. Now it is 
more than likely that these are the rods of iron 
or that this is the rod of iron mentioned in the 



64 THE STEAM ENGINE 

Bible, both in the Old Testament and in the New, 
by which the Great Ruler is going to rule all 
nations, and prepare them for, if not during, His 
millennial reign. 

Now these inspired writers themselves are the 
only witnesses to these most inspiring visions; 
but they do not tell us what they dreamed or 
what they imagined, but what they heard and 
saw ; and they are very careful to tell just what 
they did hear and see. They do not attempt to 
convey the idea to our minds that the things 
that they saw and heard were real in themselves; 
but they tell us what the things that they saw 
and heard were like, and what they had the ap- 
pearance of being. Now if these visions were 
prophecies and were symbolical of something 
that was to come, then they concern us quite as 
much, if not more, than they did the prophets 
themselves. And if all Scripture is given by the 
inspiration of God, and is written for our learn- 
ing, then these visions will become more inter- 
esting as the wheels of time roll slowly on and 
unfold their real and majestic meaning. 
Our seventh proposition is, that Daniel says 



FULFILLING PROPHECY. 65 

that this man's voice was as the voice of a mul- 
titude. St. John says that he cried with a loud 
voice, as when a lion roareth. Now this vision 
was revealed to the prophet Daniel while he was 
among the solitudes of the river-side, while he 
was beside the great river, which is Hiddekel. 
It was revealed to St. John while he was upon 
the lonely Isle of Patmos. They have both de- 
scribed the creature that they saw very vividly. 
Daniel describes him as a man " clothed in linen, 
whose loins were girded with fine gold of Uphaz. 
His body also was like the beryl, and his face as 
the appearance of lightning, and his eyes as 
lamps of fire, and his arms and his feet like in 
colour to polished br ass.' ' St. John describes him 
as a mighty angel clothed with a cloud, and 
with a rainbow upon his head and his face was 
as it were the sun, and his feet were as pillars of 
fire. 

Now, in the attitude that they both saw him, 
he was ready for action. Daniel saw him with 
his loins girded with fine gold of Uphaz ; 
St. John saw him stand upon the sea and upon 
the earth, as if ready to engage in some world- 
5 



66 THE STEAM ENGINE 

wide mission. And now he starts out to accom- 
plish his mission, and to run the race set before 
him. The fire between the wheels has been set 
in order, and a man's hand has lifted the wings 
of the cherubim ; and as he moves, the tremen- 
dous roar of his exhausting steam comes down 
upon the devout ears of the lonely exile as the 
roaring of a lion, and cries with a loud voice as 
when a lion roareth. Daniel says that the voice 
of his words was as the voice of a multitude. 

Now, there are no two metaphors that the in- 
spired writers could possibly have used that 
more fitly represent the noise produced by the 
action of the steam-engine, than that of the roar- 
ing of a lion, or that of the voice of a multitude. 
St. John says, "And when he had cried, seven 
thunders uttered their voices.' ' Here, as in some 
other places in the Bible, a definite number is put 
to represent an indefinite number, and seven 
symbolizes the perfect activity that would follow 
on the earth and upon the sea when this mighty 
angel began to cry. Seven thunders uttered their 
voices. Now, is it not a common expression to 
say the thundering locomotive, or that the train 



FULFILLING PROPHECY. 67 

came thundering along ? Our lightning express 
trains, thundering along a mile a minute, through 
the blazing light of the noon-day, and through 
the solemn darkness of the midnight, are divinely 
symbolized in Holy Writ by seven thunders ut- 
tering their voices. 

In the ninth chapter of his prophecy, Ezekiel 
speaks of six men who were coming forth to 
slaughter the city of Jerusalem for its perverse- 
ness ; but among them there was a man clothed 
in linen, with a writer's inkhorn by his side, 
"and the Lord said unto him, Go through the 
midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, 
and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men 
that sigh and that cry for all the abominations 
that be done in the midst thereof. And, behold, 
the man clothed with linen, which had the ink- 
horn by his side, reported the matter, saying, I 
have done as thou hast commanded me. And 
to the others he said, Go ye after him through 
the city, and smite : let not your eyes spare, 
neither have ye pity : but come not near any 
man upon whom is the mark ; and begin at my 
sanctuary. And it came to pass, while they were 



68 THE STEAM ENGINE 

slaying them, I fell upon my face, and cried, and 
said, Ah, Lord God! wilt Thou destroy all the 
residue of Israel in Thy pouring out of Thy fury 
upon Jerusalem?" 

Now, it is in answer to this inquiry of the 
prophet that we have the vision of the coals of 
fire, and of the cherubim The visions recorded 
in the first and tenth chapters of Ezekiel's proph- 
ecy are the same. The prophet says : " Then I 
looked, and, behold, in the firmament that was 
above the head of the cherubim there appeared 
over them as it were a sapphire stone, as the 
appearance of the likeness of a throne. I saw 
as it were the appearance of fire, and it had 
brightness round about, as the appearance of 
the bow that is in the cloud in the day of rain. 
And he spake to the man clothed with linen, and 
said, Go in between the wheels, even under the 
cherub, and fill thine hand with coals of fire from 
between the cherubim, and scatter them over 
the city." Now, this may symbolize the destruc- 
tion of the city, as some interpreters claim, but 
the man clothed with linen had nothing to do 
with the destruction of the city, and we think 



FULFILLING PROPHECY. 69 

it more fitly symbolizes the entire restoration 
of the city by virtue of them who cried and 
sighed for its abominations. We think it sym- 
bolizes its restoration, with all its abominations 
and perverseness cut off for ever, and that the 
city of Jerusalem is here symbolized by the whole 
earth, and that these visions reveal the means 
and the agencies by which this restoration is to 
be accomplished. "Now the cherubim stood on 
the right side of the house when the man went 
in; and the cloud filled the inner court. Then 
the glory of the Lord went up from the cherub, 
and stood over the threshold of the house; and 
the house was filled with thecloud, and thecourt 
was full of the brightness of the Lord's glory. 
And the sound of the cherubim's wings was 
heard even to the outer court, as the voice of the 
Almighty God when he speaketh." 

Our eighth proposition is that St. John says 
that this mighty angel had a book in his hand. 
Now what does a book indicate in the Bible, or 
out of it? It indicates knowledge, doesn't it? 
Well, Daniel savs that manv shall run to and 
fro, and knowledge shall be increased. And 



70 THE STEAM ENGINE 

every intelligent person who ponders these 
pages will see at a glance that this would be 
an excellent subject upon which to write a 
volume— the running to and fro and the increase 
of knowledge since the steam-engine has made 
its appearance. There has been more running to 
and fro and a greater increase of knowledge 
since the steam-engine has been discovered or 
invented than there was in all human history 
before. 

If ever there was a time when darkness 
covered the earth and gross darkness the people, 
it was at the time when Copernicus was born. 
That was indeed the dark age ; and the Church 
had then had its own way for a thousand years. 
But it was impossible for knowledge to increase 
until the true system of mechanics had been dis- 
covered ; and when, after years of careful study 
upon this subject, Copernicus said that the 
earth was not the centre, for no machine could 
run that way, then the dignitaries of the Church 
became alarmed. 

Now, as long as they maintained that the 
earth was the centre of the universe, and that 



FULFILLING PROPHECY. 71 

the sun and the moon and the stars traveled 
around the earth every twenty-four hours, what 
did they know, what could they know, of the 
real magnitude and dimensions of the universe? 
What did they know, what could they know, of 
the magnitude of the Pleiades and Orion, and of 
the awful distance these mighty constellations 
are from the earth ? It is true, that after the 
true system of the universe had been discovered 
and explained by Copernicus and Kepler and 
Galileo and Newton, knowledge did begin to 
increase among the few; but what about the 
multitudes ? Knowledge could only increase as 
the means of acquiring knowledge came within 
reach ; and the multitude, or the masses, had to 
grope in the darkness, until the laws and forces 
of nature, as they had been discovered and 
explained by Copernicus and Kepler and Galileo 
and Newton, had been put into practical opera- 
tion for the benefit of the human race, by James 
Watt of Scotland and George Stephenson of 
England, and by Robert Fulton and Oliver 
Evans of America, and other sons of God, whom 



72 THE STEAM ENGINE 

the earnest expectation of the creature was 
waiting to see manifest themselves. 

We wonder what the proportion is among 
the common people who are reading daily or 
weekly newspapers, both secular and religious, 
and who are reading books on philosophy and 
science and religion, now, to what it was before 
the steam-engine came into existence ; probably 
a thousand to one would be too small an esti- 
mate. Our children in our common schools, with 
text-books that they now have, know more 
than most of the old philosophers and divines 
knew. The steam-engine has been the means of 
increasing knowledge in every branch of in- 
dustry, in agriculture, in manufacture, in com- 
merce and in mining. And as to the little travel 
or running to and fro that was done, and the 
dangers and sufferings that attended it before 
the steam-engine was known, ask the pioneer 
settlers of this western wilderness; ask the 
sailors and soldiers and the missionaries — those 
who did the most of the travel— and they can 
tell the tale. Contrast their situation with 
ours, and then we shall see the difference ; and as 



FULFILLING PROPHECY. 73 

yet, we are only in the dawning of the day. The 
book in this angel'shandis open ; no more sealed- 
tip mysteries. Knowledge is free to all, and 
the means of acquiring it brought within the 
reach of all. 

Our ninth proposition is, that St. John says 
that this mighty angel was clothed with a 
cloud, and the prophet Daniel says that this 
man was in linen. Cloud is an emblem of 
trouble and commotion; and the steam-engine 
set one foot upon the sea and the other upon the 
earth in a time of trouble and commotion. In 
the order of revelation, when the sixth angel 
sounded, there were four angels loosed which 
had been bound by the great river Euphrates, 
which were prepared for an hour and a day and 
a month and a year, to slay the third part of 
men. And the number of the army of the horse- 
men was two hundred million, the revelator 
says : " And thus I saw the horses in the vision, 
and them that sat on them, having breastplates 
of fire, and of jacinth, and of brimstone; and the 
heads of the horses were as the heads of lions; and 
out of their mouths issued fire and smoke and 



74 THE STEAM ENGINE 

brimstone. " By these were the third part of 
men killed, by the fire and by the smoke and by 
the brimstone which issued out of their mouths. 

Now it was during the time in which this fear- 
ful army was allowed to accomplish its mission, 
that this mighty angel with the rainbow upon 
his head made his appearance ; and wars have 
raged terribly upon the earth even since the 
steam-engine has been in existence; but there 
has not been very much fighting upon the sea. 

That cloud and smoke are sometimes synony- 
mous, we learn from the Bible and also from the 
poets. When God was about to give His law 
on Mount Sinai, in the nineteenth chapter of 
Exodus, it is said, " And it came to pass on the 
third day in the morning, that there were 
thunderings and lightnings, and a thick cloud 
upon the mount, and the voice of the trumpet 
exceeding loud ; so that all the people that was 
in the camp trembled. And Moses brought forth 
the people out of the camp to meet with God ; 
and they stood at the nether part of the mount. 
And Mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke, 
because the Lord had descended upon it in fire: 



FULFILLING PROPHECY. 75 

and the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of 
a furnace, and the whole mount quaked greatly." 
Of the wondrous pillar that led this people in 
their journeys in the wilderness, Sir Walter 
Scott says : 

" When Israel, of the Lord beloved, 

Out from the land of bondage came, 
Her father's God before her moved, 

An awful guide in smoke and flame. 
By day, along the astonished lands, 

The cloudy pillar glided slow : 
By night, Arabia's crimsoned sands 

Returned the fiery column's glow." 

If we were standing where we could look out 
over the waters, and one of our great steam- 
ships was approaching, perhaps the first evi- 
dence we should have of its approach would be 
its cloud, or its smoke ; and as it drew nearer, 
we should see it clothed with a cloud. It was 
undoubtedly under this aspect that St. John saw 
it upon the ^Egean sea. 

Linen is an emblem of triumph and victory, 
hence, in the nineteenth of Revelation w r e read, 
"And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white 
horse; and he that sat upon him was ca:?ed 



76 THE STEAM ENGINE 

Faithful and True, and in righteousness ne doth 
judge and make war. His eyes were as a flame 
of fire, and upon his head were many crowns; 
and he had a name written, that no man knew, 
but he himself. And he was clothed with a ves- 
ture dipped in blood : and his name is called The 
Word of God. And the armies of heaven fol- 
lowed him upon white horses, clothed in fine 
linen, white and clean. And out of his mouth 
goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should 
smite the nations ; and he shall rule them with 
a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of 
the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. And 
he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name 
written, King of Kings, and Lord of Lords." 

When our railroad engines are starting their 
heavy trains, they are often enveloped in their 
exhausting and escaping steam. Under this as- 
pect it would appear in a vision as if it were 
clothed in linen, and it was undoubtedly under 
this aspect that the prophet Daniel saw it by 
the river Hiddekel. 

Our tenth proposition is, that this mighty 
angel set one foot upon the sea and the other 



FULFILLING PROPHECY. 77 

upon the earth, and lifted up his hand to heaven 
and swear by Him that liveth for ever and ever, 
that time shall be no longer. And is it not a com- 
monly accepted idea, and often expressed, that 
the steam-engine has annihilated time and 
space? Now w^hen a thing is annihilated, what 
becomes of it? Why, it is no longer. The dic- 
tionary says that annihilate is to reduce to 
nothing, to destroy the specific form of a thing. 
Now that is just exactly what the steam-engine 
has done with time and space. It has de- 
stroyed the specific form of the thing and re- 
duced it to nothing. 

Without the steam-engine our ocean cables 
could not have been laid nor made; but with 
our telegraph wires under the sea and over the 
land, time between all the centers of population 
and trade is no longer, in the sense that it w r as, 
and it never w 7 ill be any more. There will al- 
ways be time just about the same as there is 
now. The Rev. John Wesley says himself that 
matter is eternal. He says that God did not 
make matter to destroy it. If matter is eternal, 
then motion is eternal ; and if motion is eternal, 



78 THE STEAM ENGINE 

then time is eternal. Hence, we say "the countless 
ages of eternity." 

Now we think it is abundantly evident that 
the steam-engine is the mighty angel symbolized 
in the book of Revelation. We think that it is 
quite clear that the steam-engine is fulfilling 
every requirement and every obligation of this 
angel, and that when the steam-engine has ac- 
complished its mission there will be no other 
mission of any kind for any angel to perform, 
either upon the earth or upon the sea. 

The steam-engine, as we now have it, answers 
and fulfills every description of the man that the 
prophet Daniel saw clothed in linen. It literally 
fulfills Ezekiel's vision of the four-wheeled cher- 
ubim that could not move its own wings, "and 
they four had one likeness, as if a wheel had been 
in the midst of a wheel.' * Now every steam-en- 
gineer that has studied his profession knows just 
what wheel the prophet means. When this 
mighty angel has accomplished his mission the 
earth will be subdued. 

In the fourteenth chapter of Revelation, we 
read of another angel, but the characteristics of 



FULFILLING PROPHECY. 79 

these two angels are so much alike that they 
are undoubtedly the same angels, seen under 
different aspects. In the tenth chapter, it is seen 
in the position of standing upon the sea and 
upon the earth, as if about to enter upon some 
important mission ; in the fourteenth chapter, 
it is seen flying in the midst of heaven, having 
the everlasting gospel to preach to them that 
dwell upon the earth. It does not say that the 
angel preaches the gospel himself; it says hav- 
ing the everlasting gospel to preach. The angel 
himself seems to be a means or agency by which 
the gospel is to be conveyed. Where did this 
angel fly to ? To every nation and kindred and 
tongue and people. He is now assuming uni- 
versal empire, "saying with a loud voice, Fear 
God, and give glory to Him ; for the hour of His 
judgment is come : and worship Him that made 
heaven and earth, and the sea, and the fountains 
of water s." 

Now, this agrees exactly with the second 
Psalm, when it said : " Yet have I set my king 
upon my holy hill of Zion. I will declare the de- 
cree : the Lord hath said unto me, Thou art mv 



80 THE STEAM ENGINE 

Son; this day have I begotten thee. Ask of me, 
and I shall give thee the heathen for thine in- 
heritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth 
for thy possession. Thou shalt break them with 
a rod of iron: thou shalt dash them in pieces 
like a potter's vessel. Be wise now therefore, O 
ye kings: be instructed, ye judges of the earth. 
Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trem- 
bling." 

Now, it seems as if you could quote prophecy 
in connection with this mighty angel until there 
was not much prophecy left to quote. The 
wheels are in motion, the w T heels that the 
prophet Ezekiel foresaw, where he says, " As for 
the wheels, it was cried unto them in my hear- 
ing, wheel/' or, the revolving. The great 
iron wheels are going round and round day and 
night, upon the sea and upon the earth, and 
they will continue to go round until the long- 
looked-for time arrives, by prophet and poets 

foretold : 

" See from all lands, 
From the isles of the ocean 
Praise to Jehovah 
Ascending on high. 



FULFILLING PROPHECY. 81 

Fallen are the engines 
Of war and commotion ; 
Shouts of salvation 
Are rending the sky." 

When the children of Israel were passing 
through the wilderness, the Lord went before 
them in a pillar of a cloud by day, and in a pillar 
of fire by night, so that they could go by day 
and night. Now, this pillar of cloud by day and 
pillar of fire by night is a perfect symbol of the 
intense activities that exist now in our own day. 
All our great statesmen are more interested in 
and more concerned about our manufacturing 
and commercial enterprises than about any 
thing else. 

We must follow the pillar of cloud by day and 
the pillar of fire by night ; our revolving wheels 
must be kept in motion day and night, or there 
will be wreck and ruin and disaster. Our schools 
and churches and other institutions of learning 
cannot be supported if the wheels stop; the vast 
and increasing populations of our great cities 

will languish and die, unless the wheels are kept 
in motion. 

6 



82 THE STEAM ENGINE 

The further we follow this subject, the more 
profound it becomes; but for want of more time 
and attention, we here submit the reasoning 
that we have produced to the careful attention 
of our readers. 



APPENDIX. 



APPENDIX. 

Since writing the foregoing pages, we have 
learned that Mr. Henry Gillman, United States 
Consul at Jerusalem, has reported to the De- 
partment of State that three American loco- 
motives, made in Philadelphia and intended for 
the new railway from Jerusalem to Jaffa (Joppa), 
had arrived at Jaffa. Our consul says that it 
must be interesting to American citizens to 
know that the first locomotives ever used in 
this ancient land were made in the United States. 

We shall now present two illustrations of the 
power of the steam-engine, and of its ability to 
accomplish the mission it is sent to perform — 
one from the sea and the other from the land. 

One of the most eventful and interesting sea 
voyages upon record is Saint Paul's voyage to 
Rome. It is interesting because two of the 
voyagers were Saint Paul and Saint Luke, the 
two men who wrote probably half of the New 



86 APPENDIX. 

Testament. Most Bible readers know that to 
save himself from assassination by the Jews, 
Saint Paul made his appeal unto Caesar, and 
preparations were then made by his friends for 
his great voyage to Rome, and several of his 
friends accompanied him on this perilous jour- 
ney. 

In giving us an account of this voyage, the 
writer says: "And when it was determined 
that we should sail into Italy, they delivered 
Paul and certain other prisoners unto one 
named Julius, a centurion of Augustus ' band. 

' i And entering into a ship of Adramyttium, we 
launched, meaning to sail by the coasts of Asia, 
and the next day we touched at Sidon. And 
when we had launched from thence, we sailed 
under Cyprus, because the winds were contrary. 
And when we had sailed over the sea of Cilicia 
and Pamphylia, we came to Myra, a city of 
Lycia. And there the centurion found a ship of 
Alexandria sailing into Italy, and he put us 
therein. And when we had sailed slowly many 
days, and scarce were come over against Cnidus, 
the wind not suffering us, we sailed under Crete, 



APPENDIX. 87 

over against Salmone, and, hardly passing it, 
came unto a place which is called the Fair 
Havens, nigh whereunto was the city of Lasea. 

"Now when much time was spent and when 
sailing was now dangerous because the fast 
was now already past, Paul admonished them, 
and said unto them, Sirs, I perceive that this 
voyage will be with hurt and much damage, 
not only of [the lading and ship, but also of 
our lives. 

"Nevertheless the centurion believed the mas- 
ter "and owner of the ship more than those 
things which were spoken by Paul, and because 
the haven was not commodious to winter in, 
the more part advised to depart thence also, if 
by any means they might attain to Phenice and 
there to winter, which is a haven of Crete, and 
lieth toward the southwest and northwest. 

"And when the south wind blew softly, sup- 
posing that they had obtained their purpose, 
loosing thence, they sailed close by Crete. But 
not long after there arose against it a tempestu- 
ous wind, called Euroclydon. And when the ship 
was caught and could not bear up into the wind, 



8S APPENDIX. 

we let her drive. And running under a certain 
island, which is called Clauda, we had much 
work to come by the boat, which, when they 
had taken up, they used helps, undergirding 
the ship ; and fearing lest they should fall into 
the quicksands, strake sail, and so were driven. 
And we being exceedingly tossed with a tempest, 
the next day they lightened the ship ; and the third 
day we cast out with our own hands the tack- 
ling of the ship, and when neither sun nor stars 
in many days appeared, and no small tempest 
lay on us, all hope that we should be saved was 
taken away. 

"But after long abstinence, Paulstood forth in 
the midst of them, and said: Sirs, ye should 
have hearkened unto me, and not have loosed 
from Crete, and to have gained this harm and 
loss." And after exhorting them to be of good 
cheer, he told them that they must be cast upon 
a certain island. " But when the fourteenth night 
was come, as we were driven up and down in 
Adria, about midnight the shipmen deemed that 
they drew near to some country ; and sounded 
and found it twenty fathoms : and when they 



APPENDIX. 89 

had gone a little further, they ounded again, 
and found it fifteen fathoms. Then fearing lest 
we should have fallen upon rocks, they cast four 
anchors out of the sterr* and wished for the day. 

"And when it was day they knew not the 
land, but they discovered a certain creek with a 
shore, into which they were minded, if it were 
possible, to thrust in the ship. And when they 
had taken up the anchors, they committed them- 
selves unto the sea, and loosed the rudder band*, 
and hoised up the mainsail to the wind, and 
made toward the shore. And falling into a place 
where two seas met, they ran the ship aground 
and the forepart stuck fast, and remained un- 
movable, but the hinder part was broken with 
the violence of the waves. 

"And the soldiers' counsel was to kill the pris- 
oners, lest any of them should swim out and es- 
cape; but the centurion, willing to save Paul, 
kept them from their purpose, and commanded 
that they which could swim should cast them- 
selves first into the sea and get to land: and 
the rest, some on boards, and some on broken 
pieces oft!:eship, and so it came to pass that 



90 APPENDIX. 

they all escaped to land ; and when they were 
escaped, then they knew that the island was 
called Melita." Then the centurion had to stay 
three months at Melita (or Malta) before he 
could get another ship to venture out to sea to 
carry his prisoners on to Rome. 

Saint Paul and his friends left Jerusalem for 
this journey in September and reached Rome 
some time the next summer. It took all of six 
months of peril and suffering and exposure to 
accomplish this journey. 

If Saint Paul and his friends were at Jerusalem 
now and wanted to go to Rome, with the rail- 
road from Jerusalem to Joppa in operation, our 
own government or anyone of the great powers 
of Europe could send them a ship that would 
land them safe in Rome three days after they 
started from Jerusalem. 

In the second Psalm it is said : ' ' Ask of me, and 
I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance 
and the uttermost part of the earth for thy pos- 
session. Thou shalt break them with a rod of 
iron ; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a pot- 
ter's vessel." 



APPENDIX. 91 

A beautiful illustration as to how this is being 
accomplished is given in connection with the 
opening of railroads in Russia. 

The first railroad that was built in Russia was a 
small affair and was built as an experiment. It 
was built by American engineers. They had 
charge of building the road and starting the 
trains to running. All went along smoothly until 
the day appointed for opening the railroad had 
arrived. Our American engineers were at their 
posts when the hour arrived and ready to run 
the first train over the railroad. 

There was no very unusual excitement in the 
town from where the train was to start for so 
great an occasion, but w r hen they got out into 
the open country a very unusual sight met their 
wondering eyes. There was a multitude that 
thev could not number. You would think that 
the whole hosts of Gog and Magog, of Mesheck 
and Tubal, were in sight. The fact was that the 
whole populace had gathered at that place to 
see their priests stop the train from going along 
the railroad. Our American engineers, fearing 
that some scheme was on foot to wreck the 



92 APPENDIX. 

train, slackened their speed and moved siowly 
until they came within a short distance of what 
appeared to be the centre of the excitement ; 
then they brought -the train to a standstill and 
some men went on to see if the track had been 
tampered with. But the track had not been 
touched ; it was just as they had left it, and no 
one was standing on it. 

But at the side of the track a great w ooden 
cross had been set into the ground, and by the 
side of the cross there was a notice forbidding 
the train to pass, and along bo h ^ides of the 
track were long rows of men dresses in priestly 
robes, with books in their hands reading some- 
thing. Of course our American engineer soon 
took in the whole situation ; they saw what it 
all meant. They went back to their train and 
set their fire in order between the wheels, then 
the man's hand appeared upon the wings of the 
cherubim, and this mighty angel clothed itself 
with its cloud, and lifted up its voice above the 
voice of all that multitude, and with a majesty 
almost divine, it moved on past the multitude, 
and passed their priests, and past the notice, 



APPENDIX. 93 

and past the cross, and on to its destination. 
The rod of iron ruled and their priestly ignorance 
was dashed to pieces like a potter's vessel. 

False or imaginary gods will get a poor show 
before the onward march of the steam-engine. 
It will yet subdue China and Africa, and it is 
clearly evident that this is the mighty agency by 
which man is to subdue the earth, and it is being 
done in such a way that when the work is 
accomplished no creed in religion nor profession 
in science or philosophy, no race or nation or 
generation, will be able to say, "We did it." 

But all the praise and all the honor and all 
the glory will be to Him who worketh all things 
after the counsels of His own will. We will end 
our book with 

A POEM BY OLIVER EVANS. 

The world in primal darkness lay, 

In shades of gloomiest night, 
Without a single glimmering ray 

To guide our steps aright. 

Enveloped was the human mind 

In darkness drear and dread ; 
Man's noble powers were all confined, 

By no kind beacon led. 



94 APPENDIX. 

At length the star of science rose, 

This darkness to dispel, 
Creation's mysteries to disclose, 

And nature's wonders tell. 

Upon her balmy wings she bore 
The thoughts of man away, 

And bade him boundless worlds explore, 
No more in darkness stay. 

She bade him walk the ethereal blue, 

, Where countless planets shine, 
With knowledge pure his mind imbue — 
Knowledge almost divine. 

Glad man obeyed ; to him the key 
Of Knowledge then was given ; 

The elements obeyed his will 
And owned him child of heaven. 

The lightning's glare that rends the sky 
When storms in anger meet, 

Dread agent of destruction's power, 
Falls harmless at his feet. 

He rides upon the briny deep, 
Where foaming billows rise ; 

O'er rocks and hills and billows steep, 
With will he swiftly flies. 

And science shows His handiwork, 
Who made this world of ours, 

And bids us reverence and adore 
The God of wondrous powers. 



APPENDIX. 95 



Science religion's handmaid is, 
The best boons to mortals given, 

Expanding all man's noble powers, 
Then leading him to heaven. 



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